d3cker
Stepping onto a destroyed sailing vessel, your job is to determine what happened that led to the deaths of every soul onboard. You must match bodies to names to causes of death, and in doing so, you reconstruct a symphony of cause and effect through logic and process of elimination. There is a fundamentally unique excitement and satisfaction to that process that makes this game stand out atop the rest of the genre that this game itself created. Unlike anything before or after, playing Return of the Obra Dinn is mandatory for anyone who enjoys games and their design.
2024
A visually satisfying incremental game with some factory elements and a very high demand for engagement (read: NOT an idle game). Only a couple hours in, but the game has already seemed to slow down a lot, although I concede I do imagine there's room for improvement in my layout/build. I intend to keep playing, because so far it's got a very satisfying loop and generally exciting progression.
2022
Well, it's certainly an aesthetic experience, but the way it turns your decisions into consequence is always just below the waterline on being fun enough to ask for more. It's unfortunately a game of attrition, with your enjoyment being the thing that is slowly eroded by your occasional imperfect decisions. It's so close to glory--if only you had fewer choices, or the consequences were less punitive, we'd have a game that was impossible to not recommend.
2020
My god, what a stupid joy it is to fumble your way around a technically "competitive" game with a bunch of other equally fumblesome players, under low stakes and high silliness. It defined a genre, and nothing is exactly like the king. Now free-to-play, it's worth more than a test-hour of your time, without question.
2023
Aesthetically incredible, but far too unwieldy and obtuse to deserve your attention.
With a combat system that feels more like a chore than a joy, dialogue that is disjointed at its best and groan-inducing at its worst, this retelling of a game I admittedly never finished was still somehow enjoyable to move through, owing a lot to strong performances and beautiful models and animation. I admit I'm only modestly invested in the characters, as so much of what happens in the game is intentionally a mystery, including some motivations simply being entirely unspoken. I hope that SQENIX take note of the criticisms of this game to improve upon their continuation of this trilogy.
It's early, but I was allowed into the technical test for this game and it is exactly as awesome as it looks like it's gonna be.
2024
There's a special feeling when a game makes you gasp with surprise, awe, and excitement. It's already happened a few times and I'm barely 2.5 hours in. Looking forward to continuing to explore this world as it does such a good job of nudging you towards new discoveries without much effort, backtracking, or Googling.